


second date

by dimsum



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Arcades, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, Fluff and Humor, Humor, M/M, kind of but not really, only mildly crack-ish i swear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-09-01 19:04:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20263018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dimsum/pseuds/dimsum
Summary: This is what Donghyuck uses his Saturdays for — bothering his friends while they're at work. Last week, he and Jaemin bought vampire romance novels from Mark. This week, they're visiting Renjun at Chuck E. Cheese's."I would like," says Jaemin, clearing his throat, "ten dollars' worth of tokens. I'm trying to have a nice date with my boyfriend here."





	second date

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Milival](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milival/gifts).

> ok the idea generating process for this went like: red velvet 'my second date' --> pokemon cards --> pokemon go --> i haven't played pokemon go in years so i can't write about pokemon go --> let's do arcades instead --> CHUCK E. CHEESE'S
> 
> if you don't know what chuck e. cheese's is it's basically an arcade for young children. aka i had my birthday party there when i was like 6 or something. 
> 
> to val: thank you for being such a lovely friend and fellow writer!! it's always fun to chat with you on the 00ff server!! thank u for clowning [redacted] with me and being a cool person!! u asked for nahyuck being dumb and in love and very happy and i. i gave you nahyuck being dumb that's for sure
> 
> to the literal angel who beta-ed this for me: u are my savior thank u
> 
> to all my 00ff-ers: if i've already given myself away thru my reveluv and crackhead tendencies. stream my second date.
> 
> i am so uncreative when it comes to titles i'm sorry
> 
> happy bday nana!!

"Just so you know," says Donghyuck, completely serious, "I don't put out on the first date."

Jaemin smacks his shoulder. "This is our second date, excuse you," he says, turning his nose up. "And that's a lie, because you already showed me your Pokemon cards last time."

Donghyuck scoffs. "Those were just the basic ones. You have to wait until after the third date to see my EX cards."

He pulls into one of the parking spaces near the Chuck E. Cheese's, shifting his mom's beat-up Honda Civic ("Fancy ride," Jaemin had said when Donghyuck picked him up) into park. Even if he parks slightly out of the lines, Jaemin can't say anything because he doesn't even have his learner's permit yet.

"You know you parked in a thirty minutes only space, right?" says Jaemin, easing the door open and climbing out.

Donghyuck waves a hand dismissively. "What are they gonna do? Tow my car?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Shut up, nerd."

Jaemin shrugs. "It's your funeral. Just don't blame me when your mom gets pissed at you."

"Enough about my mom already," says Donghyuck, locking the car and jamming the keys into a pocket. He'd spent all week wheedling and whining until his mother grudgingly let him have the car today, under the condition he wouldn't drive anyone. If she found out he took Jaemin to Chuck E. Cheese’s, she'd skin him alive.

Luckily for him, she's not going to find out. "So, what are we doing?" asks Donghyuck. "Linking our arms? Holding hands? Or should I have my arm around your shoulder?"

"Hey, I'm the taller one," says Jaemin. "If anything, I should have my arm around _your _shoulder."

"_I'm the taller one_," repeats Donghyuck, pitching his voice higher. "Some people have _one_ growth spurt and suddenly they think they're giants."

"I'm literally a full inch taller than you!"

"Oh my god, one whole inch," says Donghyuck. "You're practically Bigfoot now."

Jaemin pouts, crossing his arms. "Aren't you supposed to be nice to your date?"

"I'm legally exempted because it's you," Donghyuck snipes back. He sees Jaemin's trademark eyeroll coming and tugs him by the hand before he can do it. "Come on, we don't have all day."

A blast of air-conditioning hits them in the face as they step inside; Donghyuck half-wishes he'd brought a jacket. He shifts his grip on Jaemin's hand and drags him towards the back counter, catching sight of a familiar head of blond hair.

"One moment," says the poor employee, standing on his tiptoes to reach a stuffed animal on the top shelf. It must be so sad to only be 5' 7” with insoles, Donghyuck almost pities him. Almost.

After the guy manages to knock the stuffed animal off with the tips of his fingers, he whirls around to greet them, out of breath. "Sorry about that, how can I help— oh."

Jaemin grins, slapping a bill onto the counter. "Can I get ten dollars' worth of tokens for me and my _date _here," he asks, layering extra emphasis on the word 'date.'

Renjun stares back, unimpressed. "You brought your date to a Chuck E. Cheese's."

"What?" says Jaemin, affronted. "Isn't this the happiest place on Earth?"

"No, honey, that's Disneyland." Donghyuck lifts their intertwined hands into view, willing the smile off his face as he meets Renjun's stare. "This is the second happiest place on Earth."

Jaemin nods, not breaking eye contact with Renjun. "Of course, darling."

Renjun looks back and forth between the two of them before giving up on picking one to glare at. "What do you want."

This is what Donghyuck uses his Saturdays for — dragging his friends around to bother his other friends while they're at work. Last week, he and Jaemin bought vampire romance novels from Mark. This week, they're visiting Renjun.

"I would like," says Jaemin, clearing his throat, "ten dollars' worth of tokens. I'm trying to have a nice date with my boyfriend here."

"With all the first graders?" asks Renjun, deadpan. "I mean, I guess it suits your maturity level."

Donghyuck gasps. "Did you hear that, sweetie? I think the cashier's trying to bully us."

"I think he is," replies Jaemin. "Excuse me, I want to speak to your manager."

"Just take the tokens and go," says Renjun, snatching the ten-dollar bill from Jaemin and shoving a cup of coins towards him. "God, can a man get a break?"

"What man?" snickers Donghyuck, grabbing the tokens off the counter. "I only see a twelve-year-old here."

Jaemin pushes him towards the shooting games before Renjun has the chance to respond. Which is a shame, Donghyuck was looking forward to hearing whatever sad comeback he scrounged up this time. He opens his mouth to complain, but Jaemin shoves a plastic rifle in his hands and pushes two coins into the slots first. Grinning, he says, "Bet I can kick your ass at this."

Donghyuck slams the 'start' button. "Prepare to _lose _that bet."

The plan was to stay near the back counter and act disgusting coupley to piss Renjun off, but Donghyuck finds himself chasing Jaemin from corner to corner until they’ve covered the entire floor. When they're in the back corner near the restrooms, Jaemin catches more trout on the fishing game, but a few minutes later Donghyuck hits jackpot on the wheel of fortune near the front.

Jaemin watches the machine spit out ticket after ticket. "This means you have to get me one of the stuffed pandas."

"You think I'm spending my hard-earned tickets on you?" says Donghyuck, stacking the tickets up in his hands. "Get your own tickets."

"But Hyuck, I'm your date," whines Jaemin, sticking out his bottom lip. Donghyuck's chest seizes up for a second.

"Ugh, fine," he says, darting his eyes away. _What the hell was that?_ He coughs; it was probably just a tickle in his lungs. "Maybe you can get one of the small ones."

Jaemin throws his arms around Donghyuck. "Awww, babe!" His breath ghosts over the shell of Donghyuck's ear as he whispers, "Renjun totally looks disgusted right now."

Donghyuck laughs, repressing a shiver. "If he hasn't thrown up yet, we still have work to do."

They play air hockey for a while, Donghyuck blocking all of Jaemin's pathetic attempts to score on him while trading increasingly sappy nicknames. He tracks Renjun's reactions out of the corner of his eye. When Renjun visibly shudders at his latest masterpiece, ‘honey bunny boo boo,’ Donghyuck's about to declare himself the winner until Jaemin hits the puck into his goal while he's distracted and nets a bigger reaction with ’sugar candy lovebug.’

Donghyuck scowls. "Cheater."

"Am not," insists Jaemin. "Just keeping you on your toes, baby cakes."

Renjun mimes retching.

After Donghyuck finally wins, they take a break for lunch — Jaemin chooses from the gourmet options on the menu (pizza with french fries, pizza with raw vegetables, or pizza with both). Donghyuck realizes how lucky he is that Jaemin’s the only other person in their friend group who doesn't work on Saturdays. No one else matches his shamelessness as well. Certainly, no one else would be willing to go to Chuck E. Cheese's with him on a Saturday just to mess with Renjun. It's always nice to have someone who shares your dedication to making your friends as uncomfortable as possible.

After Jaemin decides on pizza with fries (the carrots look gross, he says), Donghyuck swipes his card, since Jaemin bought tokens. Jaemin pulls him into the booth closest to Renjun, puts on his best lovesick expression, and feeds him fries. He's kind of bad at it, if Donghyuck's being honest.

After the third time he almost chokes on a fry, Donghyuck pulls the basket out of Jaemin's reach. "You're doing it wrong," he declares. "Stop trying to mash them into my mouth. Do it like," he holds up a fry to Jaemin's mouth, "this."

Jaemin nibbles at the fry, nimbly tugging it out of Donghyuck's hand with his teeth. "Like that?" he asks, grinning, and Donghyuck gets a feeling he's just been played like a fiddle. Jaemin licks the salt off his lips, and Donghyuck's throat runs dry.

"Yeah," says Donghyuck, suddenly struggling to keep a straight face. He pushes the basket of fries back to Jaemin's side. "You think you can manage that?"

"Hmm, I don't know." Jaemin pulls a puppy-dog expression, the picture of innocence, and Donghyuck curses whatever higher power gave Jaemin those eyes. "You might need to show me again."

He's having so much fun trying to gross Renjun out, after a while he sort of forgets about Renjun. It's just him and Jaemin, trying to one-up each other in sappiness, and before he knows it his hand is scraping the bottom of the fries basket and coming up empty.

Jaemin shakes his head sadly. "Wanna order more fries?"

"If you pay, sure," says Donghyuck. Jaemin's nose scrunches up.

"I spent all of my money on tokens," he whines.

Donghyuck shrugs. "That sucks. Guess we're not getting any more fries."

He sneaks a brief glance at his watch while Jaemin throws their trash away — he only has half an hour before his mom's expecting him to be home. "We gotta go soon," he tells Jaemin as soon as he gets back. "Let's do one more game before we leave."

Jaemin points to the far wall. "Hoops?"

—

The thing about Donghyuck and Jaemin is that they both have the mediocre basketball skills of someone who played in middle school but didn't make the high school team. Neither of them are exceptionally good, like Chenle, or exceptionally bad, like Jisung, so they're neck and neck the entire time.

Unfortunately for Donghyuck, they both have the same competitive streak as well. There is no clear winner in sight, which means they're just shooting hoops as fast as they can until someone slips up. Every time Donghyuck misses, Jaemin scores, and every time Jaemin fumbles, Donghyuck sinks one in. If Donghyuck were more aware of his surroundings, he'd probably be concerned at how scared the little kids watching them are becoming, but he's got a boy to beat and a game to win.

They shouldn't really be getting so fired up over a simple game of hoops at a children's arcade, but Donghyuck's never been known for being mature, anyways.

Through sheer luck, Donghyuck manages to gain a slight lead once the clock counts down to thirty seconds left. The points on his side of the scoreboard shoot up as he makes three in a row. "Got anything to say before you lose?" he huffs.

"Yeah," says Jaemin.

Donghyuck waits for it, but when nothing comes in the next five seconds, he figures that Jaemin's still deciding on his losing words. He picks up the next ball and readies his aim, about to roll it off his fingertips and into the hoop.

And then, Jaemin swoops in and kisses his cheek.

Donghyuck startles, dropping the ball back into the machine with a loud thunk. He brings a hand up to his face, fingers hovering over where Jaemin just kissed him. He can still feel Jaemin's chapped lips against his skin, the phantom sensation odd but... nice. Really nice. Nicer than he'll admit to himself.

He only breaks out of his reverie when the time runs out and the clock beeps, announcing that the game ended while he was distracted. His eyes dart to the scoreboard — Jaemin finished with a four-point lead on him.

"You dirty little cheater."

Donghyuck can't decide whether to gape or to glare at him, and judging from the way Jaemin laughs at him, the combination he decided on wasn't very effective. "I don't know what you're talking about," says Jaemin, eyes sparkling with mirth. "I won fair and square."

"You know, I said I was gonna use my tickets to get you a panda," sniffs Donghyuck, "but now I don't know. Cheaters don't deserve pandas."

"Aww, Hyuckie, please?" whines Jaemin. He wraps himself around Donghyuck and rests his chin on his shoulder and Donghyuck is so, so weak. "You know you love me."

"That's debatable," says Donghyuck, willing the blush off his face. "Now come on, we gotta go."

Jaemin refuses to let go of Donghyuck as they stumble over to the back counter, the eyes of twenty five-year-olds following them as they go. He's still clinging onto him like a leech when Donghyuck presents their winnings to Renjun.

A thrill of satisfaction runs down his spine when Renjun legitimately looks queasy at how lovey-dovey they're being. "How many tickets is the big panda on the top shelf?" he asks.

Renjun's face is pained. "Six hundred," he answers, grudgingly.

"Then we have more than enough." Donghyuck pats Jaemin's head, smile saccharine sweet. "I would like one panda for my dear boyfriend, please."

"I hate both of you so much," says Renjun, prepared with a step stool this time. He snags the panda off the shelf and all but throws it into Donghyuck's face.

Jaemin frowns. "That was very rude of you," he says, affecting a white soccer mom voice. "I'm going to report you to your manager," he squints at Renjun's name tag, "Rehn-joon."

Renjun lets out a deep sigh. "Please, just go," he moans, burying his face in his hands. Donghyuck stifles a laugh as they walk away, leaving Renjun behind to wallow in his suffering.

"I think we did a good job," says Jaemin, once Renjun’s out of earshot, clutching the panda with one hand and holding Donghyuck's hand with the other. Donghyuck has to agree.

Once they're outside, back in the full blast of late summer heat, Donghyuck knows the charade is over. It's not a surprise — they're not really dating, after all — but he wasn't expecting to feel as disappointed as he does.

Reluctantly, he moves to pull his fingers away from Jaemin's, trying to push down his dumb feelings until Jaemin tightens his grip on Donghyuck's hand. A jolt runs up Donghyuck's arm as Jaemin pulls Donghyuck closer to him, smiling softly. "The date's not over yet, lover boy. You still have to take me home."

"You're so corny," complains Donghyuck, but he squeezes Jaemin's hand back anyways.

They walk hand in hand in comfortable silence, Donghyuck’s traitorous heart starting to flutter until Jaemin stops abruptly in front of an empty parking space — the empty space where Donghyuck's car should be.

"Donghyuck," he asks, words measured out slowly and deliberately. "Where's your car?"

Donghyuck gapes at the empty space, looking up just in time to see a tow truck careen out of the parking lot, his mom's Civic chained to the back. "My car!"

His limbs go completely slack, legs weak with the thought of what his mom's going to do when she finds out. Jaemin pats his shoulder. "I promise I'll come to your funeral."


End file.
